


Proprioception

by geekns



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Inspired by a Movie, Teacher Doctor, Time Sense headcanon, Twissy if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-25 14:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12037599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geekns/pseuds/geekns
Summary: a Doctor Who "Magician's Apprentice"/"Witch's Familliar" episode addition/Perfect Sense review in the voice of Twelve (spoilers for both)





	Proprioception

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Doctor Who and Perfect Sense belong to the BBC. Both of them make me cry (now and again).

> Proprioception - perception governed by proprioceptors, as awareness of the position of one's body.

  
Humans are always so sure of themselves. They say that there are five senses, so of course there must be. I recently watched a film about senses while Clara was wasting time sleeping. The film was called  _Perfect Sense_  and followed a couple's tumultuous experience during an Earthwide pandemic. Humans, the entire population of planet Earth, were gradually losing the use of their senses one by one. They blamed it on a disease or a terrorist attack or something equally implausible, but of course this is completely ridiculous: there is no single disease that affects everyone on a planet, let alone without leaving a trace, as the case was in this film. No one was naturally immune, they couldn't isolate the virus, there was no way to fight back. There's  _always_ a way to fight back.  
  
But let's just assume for a moment that it could be true, that there could be a disease in which everyone systematically lost the command of four out of their “five” senses. First, the infected became depressed for a couple of hours and afterward lost their sense of smell. True depression lasts more than a couple of hours, but sure, okay, fine, whatever. Everyone needs to have a good cry now and again, I suppose.  
  
A few months pass, people adapt and move on, and then one day the infected feel extreme fear for, let's say, half an hour, followed by extreme hunger, at which point he or she will eat anything on hand, and I do mean anything. They aren't picky about it, they just grab whatever they see and stick it in their mouths and masticate it for a while. It doesn't need to be edible, it can be disgusting, raw, condiment, bouquet. Whatever, whether it be flora, fauna, or chemical, they eat it until they come to their senses and realize they can't taste anymore and are wondering what the devil just happened. Extreme hunger, okay, but wouldn't it be a wee bit more plausible if they restricted themselves to foods that are actually esculent instead of mindlessly trying to kill themselves? Can you imagine the next 48 hours? The sick everywhere, the doctors and nurses too ill themselves to possibly attend to all of the poisoned and salmonellaed? People might just not survive this time, they might just die with only two senses down and not live to see the next horror.  
  
Months later, and the sudden anger. People go batshit crazy and tear apart everything within reach. They trash their apartment, beat up strangers, loot the neighborhood, and now things are looking really dire. All of a sudden society is breaking down. People cannot hear anymore, so it makes it difficult to apologize for acting so insane, which is just as well as not everyone wants to apologize. Hey, he couldn't control himself, and then she went and acted the same way an hour later, but we cannot think rationally about this, now, can we?  
  
And finally, weeks later, the most unbelievable break of all, suddenly they  _do_ want to apologize, they  _do_ want to forgive. They  _must_ find one another, they must reunite, only our ill-fated couple  _just_ missed each other, cannot hear each other calling out to one another, are doomed to survive this tragically alone. But wait: she came back! They run towards each other down the middle of the street, and that's when their sight goes. Curtain falls.  
  
Just let that sink in for a mo. How are they supposed to survive?!? What sort of masochist makes a film like this?!? What kind of people pay to watch it? It was beautiful, I'll be honest, I cried. You really have to go find it, I mean it,  _go_! Drop everything and watch it now, it's on Netflix, or was, I'm not really sure when. Clara should really change her password, I get too excited about streaming video and then I start talking to myself, or even worse, you.  
  
Now, intellectually, the human race still has more senses at its disposal. They could take those last couple of steps toward one another and huddle in the middle of the street until some friend of theirs drives by in a similar state and goes blind behind the wheel and runs them over. Or they could stumble upstairs into her apartment and fumble their way about. How? Is it with only their sense of touch? Not exactly.  
  
Even humans have a bit of psychic ability. For us Time Lords, it would be easy, at least, to find each other in the middle of the street while blind. We could feel each others' being, even if we were strangers, and hear each others' thoughts if we opened up our minds and reached out, right? Certainly, if we were lovers, this would be as effortless as breathing. And then we could visualize the apartment around us and remember where everything was, count steps, keep from bumping into anything, sense our way through the maze. Sorry, you humans would not be as good at this, but you would gradually get better. You would figure it out that warmth means the lamp or the furnace and the rug is softer than the hardwood floor. Your other senses would strengthen in time, and you might not be as aware of these senses as a Time Lord is, but you still have them in your own limited way. You'd adapt, you'd move on, in a few years you would forget your old senses and at least be able to use the other senses that you simply take for granted at present. If you can figure out how to feed yourselves and keep the water running for that long, of course.  
  
But Time Lords can do one better. Humans can sense where their hand is in relation to their face, even without looking (save when they are drunk or otherwise impaired), but we can sense where our loved ones are in relation to us, not just across a room or a city, but across time. If a Time Lord's timeline is wrapped strongly enough around another Time Lord's, he can feel where they are passing in relation to himself just as clearly as you can smell their perfume, hear them singing, feel their heartsbeats. We can shield our thoughts and feelings from one another, certainly, but it is extremely difficult to completely mask temporal proprioception, and nearly impossible to break that link once it is formed, not without a great schism, and even then it's still there, lying dormant, waiting to be rekindled. Even when separated by dimensions or rifts we can still sense friends. It's kind of like the feeling that you're being watched, and looking around and finding that you're alone, but you still know who is watching you and where that person is watching from. The only way for this sense to be completely lost is through death... of both friends.  
  
If a Time Lord was suffering from the film's fourth break, the sudden need to forgive and be forgiven, there wouldn't be anything in the universe that could stop him or her from finding that loved one. One could use a Time Vortex Manipulator without coordinates, the psychic tie would be strong enough to safely reunite the two friends. Using a Tardis' telepathic circuits would be safer, of course, but where there is a will, there is a way. If one friend yanks hard enough, the other comes. There's always an escape. Life goes on. Life adapts. Humans would say that love reunites and heals...Time Lords know better. At least... I do.


End file.
